1st definitive issue on stamps of Russia, 12th and 11th issues.
Russian Post in China was a postal service organized by the government of the Russian Empire on the territory of China and operating from 1870 to 1920.
To improve postal exchange with China, to support the work of Russian consulates, trade missions, and private firms, and later to ensure normal communications in the concession territories, Russian post offices began to open from the late 19th century.
According to the opinion of the State Council, highest-approved on March 23 (April 4), 1870, the Russian post in China was established as a private enterprise under the patronage of the Russian government and receiving an annual subsidy of 17,600 rubles. The Russian post operated between Kyakhta and Tianjin, and along this route four Russian post offices were established: in Urga, Kalgan, Beijing, and Tianjin. These offices accepted and dispatched all kinds of correspondence to all places in Russia and beyond its borders.
At the beginning of the 20th century, such offices existed in Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan), Mongolia, Manchuria, along the Chinese Eastern Railway, and in a number of Chinese ports (Tianjin, Chefoo, Shanghai, and others).
For paying postage, both stamps of the Russian Empire and special issues for postal items in China were used. Such stamps bore the overprint "China" and until 1917 were used at the exchange rate of 1 ruble = 1 Chinese dollar (yuan). Due to the inflation that had begun, from 1917 the stamps were used only in Chinese currency.
By agreement with the Soviet Government of Russia, the Russian post offices in China were closed in December 1920 to January 1921.